


Ships Sailing On Molten Rainbows

by lu_oo



Category: The Bifrost Incident - The Mechanisms (Album), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Multi, Other, alternative universe - there are boats instead of trains, and trust me there is a lot of tags to be added, i promise everything will make sense when chapter 2 is published : )c, tags to be added as this progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28203378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lu_oo/pseuds/lu_oo
Summary: It is shaping to be a relatively simple job. The wonderful little sea-side town has a scary monster living in the lighthouse and they need somebody to slay it. Or, in his case, chase it away and hopefully pick up some samples. Then he can just spend a few days relaxing in this, frankly wonderful, small seaside town.Or maybe, instead, he will happen to learn something about a certain special boat which was made in the town's shipyard 20 years ago and was supposedly destroyed before ever leaving the port.
Relationships: Lyfrassir Edda/Marius von Raum
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Ships Sailing On Molten Rainbows

**Author's Note:**

> The boats start in chapter two. I'm sorry there are no boats in the first chapter. 
> 
> Any content warnings I can think of is that there is a lot of talking about corpses.

_To my dear, and not so dear, friends,_

_The journey went smoothly, for the most part, although I must say, boats are not my preferred form of transport. Before you ask, no I did not get seasick, I just happen to think they are kind of slow and the view is not one of the most interesting._

_I do intend to do my job quickly, enjoy all this little sea-side town to the fullest and return to you swiftly. In the meantime, do not touch any of my things, I mean it. Whoever touches anything belonging to me during my absence, is not getting a souvenir from me._

_Take care and stay healthy. Or don’t. That’s mostly up to you._

_See you in a month,_

_Signed,_

_Your ~~dearest s~~ econd dearest, Doctor. _   
_21st of September 1921._

It is shaping to be a relatively simple job. The wonderful little sea-side town has a scary monster living in the lighthouse and they need somebody to slay it. Or, in his case, chase it away and hopefully pick up some samples. Then he can just spend a few days relaxing in this, frankly wonderful, small seaside town and buy some souvenirs for his friends back home.

And, oh, he already likes this town. Set on a high hill, with no connection to the mainland other than the ocean, with big rocky cliffs stretching around the shore. All the houses here are made out of stone and have cute pointy roofs (the winters get really bad here, apparently, and a normal rooftop would not be able to withstand the amount of snow. He is not planning to stay around long enough to see how bad they get though.)

Their main town attraction is apparently a, still functioning, shipyard, the towns main source of income. The second one is seafood export, apparently, the waters around have very unique fauna. He is rather excited by the perspective of buying some fresh fish of the market since he read these are being carried out every Thursday morning. Oh, how delicious the perspective of fresh-baked fish sounds. Maybe he can even get a good lobster here or some unusual species of shrimp? 

When his ship finally arrives in the port, there is a carriage waiting for him. Apparently, the town’s major has picked a rather cosy little house to stay in, instead of a hostel and hired someone to help him get there. How very nice of him.

He makes sure to soak in the view as the carriage drives him to the destination. They pass through the main town area, the streets are mostly built out of an old, sun-dried stone and the buildings are neatly placed next to each other. He notes that none of them are built to be particularly high. Even the local church the carriage passes is relatively short. When they drive through the main town square he notices just how much the air carries around the smell of the fried fish, coming off the small restaurants set all around the piazza. He should definitely stop around there somewhere.

It’s the moments like these during which he kind of regrets not bringing anyone else with him, they would’ve enjoyed it here. However, it’s a simple job, and he already made some educated guesses as to what exactly resides inside of the local lighthouse. 

It’s a seaside town, so surely it attracts sea creatures. Given the description, he got, “tentacles” and “glowing eyes” and “no known victims” point towards a deep-sea dweller. He’s dealt with those before. Nobody really knows where exactly they come from but they sometimes stumble upon a corpse and take over, disturbing the people around them. Firstly, because it doesn’t matter what stage of putrefaction the body is in, they latch on anyway. Secondly, because the fresher it is the more… human qualities they can maintain. Like speech. They seem to be able to pluck out whatever rotten brains store and actually attempt on communication, at least for as long as the vocal cords remain intact.

Overall, a rather unpleasant looking creature, but mostly harmless and will peacefully leave if placed back in the water. They heal up pretty fast, which is why the locals usually need to call a specialist to get rid of them. That doesn’t matter to him, he can heal up too. He was made that way after all. By his own admission but still. 

His own house turns out to be little far from the square, and it takes them some time, driving next to mostly forest and plains with sporadically placed houses. It doesn’t matter, he can either walk or just rent a horse. When the carriage drives a little higher he realises he can see the lighthouse, standing lonely on a cliff. The sun is setting down and it begins to glow. According to the major, he is their last hope as apparently, the light power needs to be charged or it will run out soon. 

When they finally arrive by the house he’ll be staying in for the next few weeks he realises it’s shaped the same as all the others he passed on the way the only difference being in the colour of the stone as it appears to be more beige rather than the grey which marks the majority of the other buildings.

He cheerfully thanks the driver and reassures them that, no, it’s okay and he can carry his own bags and makes his way to the wooden door. The key to the house is stored safely at the bottom of his bag, and sure enough, he retrieves it after a few moments of searching and the door open with a loud click. 

The inside is… dusty. And dreadfully empty. The furniture is all made out of wood, and so are the floors and the panels on the walls. The kitchen looks decent enough, however, and he makes sure to check for pots and pans. All here. That’s good.

The sleeping room is rather nice too, the bed is big and the pillows and blanket are stuffed and awful fluffy. There is even, with a generously prepared pile of wood, a fireplace. He figures the nights must be really cold here. He makes sure to check the small bathroom at the end of the hallway and well, it’s usable. Just, like everything else, awfully dusty. 

He just needs to dust the place off, pack his things out of the bags and it will be a good temporary home. He just has to get used to how quiet it is.

He happens to sleep particularly well, at least for the first night spent in a new place, but it’s most likely due to the long trip induced exhaustion. Well, the new day is here and he is going to do the job he was hired to do and then report to the town’s officials. And then maybe enjoy a good meal in one of those restaurants he passed by yesterday.

He dresses up and by the time it’s noon, settles for a long walk to the local lighthouse. He tried not to over-stuff his backpack, but even with just essentials, it’s still heavy. Lightning spells (no sea creature likes electricity), some water and a hastily made sandwich for later, body bag in case he gets to retrieve something of the corpse, his notebook and two pens. And, of course, he brings his trusty silver dagger, just in case he can’t get it done without a fight.

So the basic plan is, go inside, chase the sea dweller out, and chase it back to the sea. The beach is so close from the lighthouse, it looks like just a few minutes of walking to get down there, shouldn’t be too hard, especially given how well the creatures usually reacted to even seeing water. Half of him wonders how it didn’t stumble out by itself already, but maybe it’s just lost in the lighthouse’s complicated layout. 

The entrance is, just like he was previously informed, open, so he gets inside without any setbacks.

“Hello, is anyone here? Any fantastic sea creatures?” No response. Not even a shriek or a slither of a tentacle. All right then, keep hiding.

As he walks around the lighthouse he realises that someone is, or rather was, before the whole monster infestation, most definitely living here. Ever since the invention of lightning crystals, lighthouse keeper has not been a high demand job but he guesses there are more tradition-loving people and it’s not a bad place to live. He makes sure to check every nook and cranny as he makes his way upstairs. The bed is still neatly made. The kitchen looks functional, but not like it’s been used all that much. The mirror inside the small bathroom on the third floor is half broken.

He finds what he is looking for on the highest floor, right beneath the lantern itself and it has the audacity to look… almost offended. That doesn’t last long though because shortly after they stretch out the tentacles and hiss. He takes a moment to get a good look. First of all, it’s kind of small. Not just by the standards of the creature’s host being a rather short person, he’s definitely not one to speak in that department, but the tentacles are definitely smaller than he expected. That and it seems like they have a strange iridescence to them. Maybe it's a local species thing.

What probably isn't a local species thing is that the creature isn’t exactly doing anything, just standing around making menacing tentacle gestures at him. He isn’t being attacked, but it’s not running away either. Maybe it was a very fresh corpse.

He heard of that, it was classified in one of the books he borrowed from Ivy’s library. The corpse is fresh and the sea dweller gets extremely attached it. If that is the case, maybe they just need some motivation to leave. He zaps his fingers.

“What… do you want with me?” Oh, they speak, and they speak so clearly! Excellent, then maybe he doesn’t need to actually chase them out with magic or daggers.

“Oh amazing, you can talk, that saves me a lot of work actually!” He watches them tilt their head slightly. “Right, I’m taking you back to your home.”

“I live here.”

“No, whoever you stumbled upon lived here” At least that is what he assumes happened here. That’s why most of the living space seemed to be intact. “You live inside of the ocean with other strange ocean creatures.”

“The? I what?”

“Now off with you, let’s go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you, and you are leaving my home this in-” 

He zaps his fingers in front of them

“Listen, as far as I’m aware, you are a deep-sea creature and I don’t think those get along with electricity. Now can you please move? Will be right behind you.”

He swears they frown at him. 

“Where… are we going exactly?”

“The beach.” 

He leads them to the nearby beach. It’s a fifteen minutes walk, at least it turns out to be because they are clearly stalling. Whatever, they are probably not used to walking in the human body. He just needs to lead the dweller to the ocean and then hopefully retrieve the corpse. He has a body bag with him so that shouldn’t be too bad.

When they finally reach the shore, his companion just raises their hands, and few of the tentacles, in confusion. 

“Um? What now?”

“Well? Off into the depths of the ocean with you?”

“I can’t swim!”

Did...their voice just crack?

“But you are a deep-sea creature! Just, please step into the water and I’m sure you will remember how to swim and you can go back to your… fish friends.”

They… scoff at him and proceed to take their shoes off before actually stepping into the ocean - and they do so very slowly and cautiously. Very attached to this human body huh?

“Okay, what is supposed to happen now?”

“You discard the corpse of this poor unfortunate soul and swim off into the depths?”

“First of all, I’m not a corpse, and second of all, I already told you, I can’t fucking swim!”

This is strange. Surely enough, the tentacles should just detach the second they are placed back in the ocean. Instead, they are flailing around the person’s stomach, like they don’t even want to be placed near water. 

“Maybe lower those into the water too?” They wave a tentacle for him. “Yeah, those.”

“Great, what does this prove?” They splash the water around slightly. “Aside from ruining my shirt and making me cold? Seriously, this water is very, very cold.”

“Right, um so you are… not swimming away?”

“For the third fucking time I can’t-”

“Yeah, yeah, okay sure. I guess you can go out then?”

“Thank you for breaking into my house, threatening to electrocute me and getting me wet and cold for absolutely no reason!” They yell as they make their way back to the shore.

“I… this isn’t supposed to be happening.”

“Mhm. But it is, and if that’s all you want, if you excuse me, I’ll be going back to my home so I can change my clothes and warm myself up. You people are getting bolder every day, I swear.”

“I was hired to kick you off the lighthouse, you know.”

“Kick me how? By forcing me to what, swim away? That was your plan sparkly-fingers?”

“It works usually! It works 100%! This is the first time it didn’t work!.”

They just gave him a puzzled look and start walking towards the lighthouse. He quickly decides to follow them.   
Now that they aren’t hissing and flailing tentacles at him and he can take a closer look...they certainly don’t look like a rotten corpse.

The thing about those sea dwellers is that when they happen to latch onto a corpse, it doesn’t prevent it from rotting. The longer this goes on, the more grotesque the effect, and there is zero scientifical explanation for why this happens anyway. He likes to, despite his friends chastising him for being too romantic, think the deep sea dwellers are drawn to the feeling semblances of humanity, some distant memories they can still draw out of the dead brain. This here though, it’s different, it’s too coherent, too specific.

He searches inside his backpack for his notebook and flips through it to find a blank page. One look at the being in front of him and he can tell that they are listening. Their ears twitch while he is flipping through the pages.

So, if it is not a deep dweller latched to a corpse, although to rule that out he’ll have to keep watching them for a few more days, for at least long enough to see if any rot is setting, then what? Another possibility is that it latched to a living person, but if so, that person… just wouldn’t have survived that. It would eat them from the inside. Oh, maybe that is what’s happening here?

“Are you in any pain right now?”

“Um, no. Although it’s nice of you to ask after you forced me out of my home and into a very cold ocean.”

“Yes, well, sorry about that but I mean more like… are you being eaten alive by sentient tentacles with teeth as we speak?”

They don’t even turn around to look at him

“No.”

Right, so he can, presumably, write that off. Maybe the dweller just stopped eating them for a moment, after all, there is a number of… marks? Scars? On the body. He has a feeling it’s better not to ask about those, though.

“Do you mind me following you around for the next few days?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t really go back to the town and tell them I can’t deal with their monster problem because they are chasing me away.”

“You can, however, tell them to fuck off.”

“See, that won’t fly with them either because they need to run maintenance on the lighthouse lantern and everybody who goes nearby gets scared by you.”

“The lantern runs on magic.”

“Yes, magic which needs restoring every six months.”

“Well then do something about that, sparkly-fingers!”

Oh. Huh. Well, technically he can do that, he could do that right this moment. But that would mean he is letting go of whatever mystery is happening in front of him, and it’s more of a bandaid than a full-on solution. He’s not staying on this island for long enough to refuel the lantern more than once. 

“How about I bring my tools with me and deal with that tomorrow evening? And I’ll even knock or ring the bell instead of, you know, breaking in?”

By now they both reach the entrance to the lighthouse. He’s not going to step closer to his new tentacle friend than at two meters, and he intends to keep his distance when they open the entrance door. He briefly notices how their eyes shine in the creeping darkness of the lighthouse’s hallway. 

“Whatever.” They say before loudly shutting the door. 

**Author's Note:**

> Pay attention to the dates on the letters but don't pay too much attention to the year, it doesn't matter it's like. On a different planet. Do not worry about that.


End file.
